Danielle, Harley and MacKenzie, are all attending Belding High School, participate on the track team and will be in the Division 2 state finals June 1 at Forest Hills Eastern.

John RaffelSpecial to the Sentinel Standard

Wendy Rode is an active sports mother now, since she has three daughters.In fact, the three daughters, Danielle, Harley and MacKenzie, are all attending Belding High School, participate on the track team and will be in the Division 2 state finals June 1 at Forest Hills Eastern.In fact, all three are sophomores.In fact, they're triplets.MacKenzie is the oldest, then Danielle and then Harley. They were born two minutes apart.In an era of high school sports when it's not uncommon to see twin brothers or twin sisters on the same team, having triplets of any gender on the same squad is extremely rare."They were a key part in our OK-Blue undefeated regular season and our conference championship season," said Belding coach Jon Carlson.Belding was 6-0 in dual meets, won the league and scored enough power points to qualify for the Michigan Interscholastic Track Coaches Association (MITCA) state meet May 25.Danielle won conference titles in the 400-meter dash, 3,200-meter relay and 1,600-meter relay; and qualified, with her three teammates, in the 3,200-meter relay for the state meet. She cleared 9-6 for a school record in the pole vault.The Rodes are all on the 1,600-meter relay that won in the league. Harley qualified for the state meet on the 800-meter relay team, which broke the school record at regionals in 1:48.68, and also did the long jump with a season's best of 15-4 1/2.MacKenzie was a conference runner-up in the long jump and the 400-meter dash to Danielle. She ran on the state qualifying 800-meter relay team in 1:48.68, and hit 16-4 in the regionals long jump to qualify for the state meet.The triplets themselves enjoy having sisters of the same age on the team."They're like my friends and it's cool when our relay team is announced and they say 'Rode, Rode, Rode,'" Danielle said. "I always have someone to give me a pep talk or warm up with or cheer me on," Harley said."It's really fun," MacKenzie said. "I always have someone there on the sidelines cheering for me all the time. I never get bored. It's always a good experience." The three girls also play basketball and volleyball. They were on the Belding JV basketball and volleyball teams. Danielle was moved up to varsity toward the end of the basketball season.Their mom notes that the triplets have different heights, with Danielle at 5 feet 8 inches, Harley at 5 feet 7 inches and MacKenzie at 5 feet 3 inches."Even though MacKenzie's the oldest, she's our littlest," Wendy said. "They're all very competitive. They look a lot alike, but they're not identical." "I believe all three are taking AP college advanced placement classes as sophomores," Carlson said.All three will have to admit it's been a fun spring sports season."My biggest highlight was winning the OK-Blue Conference with such an amazing track team," MacKenzie said. "Our coach told us the first day he wanted to win the OK-Blue Conference and we kind of thought he was crazy. We were kind of shocked. But we put forth so much effort during the season that we could see it happening."

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